What to know about Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley ahead of the 2026 election

Yahoo

2 days ago

MADISON - The field is set for next year's Wisconsin Supreme Court election with incumbent conservative Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Bradley facing off against challenger liberal state Appeals Court Judge Chris Taylor in the spring 2026 election.
Bradley announced her reelection bid just days after liberals secured control of the court until at least 2028 with the election of Susan Crawford, a Dane County Circuit Court judge. The court is expected to take up key issues including abortion, collective bargaining and potentially the state's congressional maps.
While Wisconsin Supreme Court races are officially nonpartisan, justices on the court typically lean liberal or conservative. In recent years, the race has become increasingly polarized, with partisan groups continuing to back their party's preferred candidate.
Liberal candidates have won four of the last five Supreme Court elections. In 2023, the court flipped to a liberal majority for the first time in 15 years with the election of Justice Janet Protasiewicz.
Here's what to know about Bradley, including her legal system experience, positions on key issues, education and more.
Bradley was elected to the Wisconsin Supreme Court for a full 10-year term in 2016 after being appointed by former Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2015. Bradley chairs the Supreme Court Legislative Committee as the chief justice's designee.
Before joining the state's high court, Bradley was appointed to and served as a District I Court of Appeals judge in 2015, headquartered in Milwaukee, and was a Milwaukee County Circuit Court judge from 2012 to 2015. She is the first Wisconsin Supreme Court justice to have served as an intermediate appellate court judge and a circuit court judge.
Bradley also worked as a private practice attorney at several Milwaukee law firms from 1996 to 2012, specializing in commercial litigation and intellectual property law. She also served as a vice president of legal operations for global software company RedPrairie Corp.
Bradley is considered a conservative judge and has served as president of the Milwaukee Federalist Society chapter and participated in the Thomas More Society and the Republican National Lawyers Association.
Bradley is 53.
Bradley is a Milwaukee native.
Bradley received her bachelor's degree in business administration and business economics from Marquette University in 1993. She then attended the University of Wisconsin Law School, graduating in 1996.
Bradley has yet to receive endorsements from fellow conservative judges on the Supreme Court, however, it is still very early in the race.
When Bradley ran in 2016, she was endorsed by Milwaukee-area law enforcement and former state Supreme Court Justices Jon P. Wilcox and Michael Gableman.
Bradley has strongly opposed abortion rights in the past but has not yet weighed in on a case involving abortion as a Supreme Court justice.
In college, Bradley compared abortion to the Holocaust and slavery, equating abortion to "a time in history when Jews were treated as non-humans and tortured and murdered" and "a time in history when Blacks were treated as something less than human" while writing for the Marquette Tribune in 1992.
During Bradley's 2016 race, both Bradley and her opponent, Court of Appeals Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, shied away from sharing their views on the issue while campaigning, as abortion rights was likely to appear before the Supreme Court.
In recent Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, abortion rights have remained a crucial flash point with both Protasiewicz and Crawford's campaigns using it as a rallying issue.
The Wisconsin Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling soon on whether the state's 1849 law specifically bans abortions or whether more recent laws or court rulings override it. The court had a liberal majority at the time of oral arguments and typically issues its opinions by the end of June.
While the court has agreed to hear another case brought by Planned Parenthood seeking to make abortion a constitutional right, the court has yet to schedule a date for oral arguments. The case will most likely be heard before the winner of the spring 2026 election takes their seat.
Shortly after Democrats swept statewide races in 2018, the Republican-controlled Legislature passed "lame-duck" laws to scale back the powers of the incoming Democratic governor and attorney general.
The "lame-duck" laws have been litigated for years. In 2019 and again in 2020, the Supreme Court's conservative majority sided with Republicans.
In 2019, the court ruled lawmakers were allowed to bring themselves into session in December to trim Evers' and Attorney General Josh Kaul's power before they look office.
"The Wisconsin Constitution mandates that the Legislature meet 'at such time as shall be provided by law.' The Legislature did so," Bradley wrote for the majority in 2019.
In 2020, the court found that "in at least some cases" the state Legislature can give itself the power to approve or reject Department of Justice civil cases and settlements, upholding most of the "lame duck" laws but leaving the door open to future challenges.
Now that the Supreme Court has a 4-3 liberal majority, Kaul has asked the justices to decide whether the Joint Finance Committee has the power to approve or reject DOJ civil cases and settlements.
The Republican-controlled state Legislature passed a law in 2011 that requires voters to show their ID at the polls, a measure that was stalled for years by court rulings.
In 2014, the Supreme Court's conservative majority issued a pair of decisions that upheld the law and tweaked it to ensure there are no fees to get a state-issued ID card.
While running for her first term on the court, Bradley declined to say whether she agreed with those rulings.
Bradley emphasized the importance of maintaining election integrity and has raised concerns about the election system.
Bradley wrote for the majority that state law does not permit drop boxes anywhere other than election clerk offices in its 2022 ruling on ballot drop boxes.
"WEC's staff may have been trying to make voting as easy as possible during the pandemic, but whatever their motivations, WEC must follow Wisconsin statutes. Good intentions never override the law," Bradley wrote.
When that decision was ultimately overturned by the newly liberal-controlled court in 2024, Bradley authored the dissenting opinion, writing the liberal majority "again forsakes the rule of law in an attempt to advance its political agenda," citing the court's previous ruling tossing the state's electoral maps.
Bradley has consistently sided with the Supreme Court's conservative bloc on key issues, including upholding Act 10, a 13-year-old law signed by Walker that banned most collective bargaining rights for public employees.
In December, a Dane County judge struck down most of the law and in February, the Wisconsin Supreme Court denied a petition to bypass the court of appeals and take up the case directly.
The case now sits in the appeals court and if the ruling is appealed again, it would then go to the state Supreme Court.
Currently, the judge placed his ruling on hold, meaning the law is in effect as it moves through the courts.
Bradley will face off against Taylor on April 7, 2026. The winner's 10-year term would begin in August 2026. If Bradley retains her seat, the court's liberal majority will remain 4-3.
Bradley's current term expires July 31, 2026.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: What to know about Rebecca Bradley before Wisconsin Supreme Court race